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"0900: Link up with 2-4 IN patrol at Cross Sabers in IZ," read the message from the press center of the Multi-National Force–Iraq. That meant that at nine the next morning I should show up at the crossed-sabers monument— the giant pair of arched swords erected by Saddam Hussein on his military parade ground—in the International Zone (aka the Green Zone) to meet a convoy from the 2nd Battalion of the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division. The convoy was to take me to a neighborhood in southern Baghdad, where I was to spend the day embedded with the US military.
The embed had proved surprisingly easy to arrange. No one had objected to the three New York Review articles I had sent in as samples of my work. On the application form, I had written that I wanted to visit a typical Baghdad neighborhood to see how the surge was working and to get a sense of what more had to be done before the US could begin to draw down its forces in any significant number.
Though I didn't say it, I also wanted to see what the embedding process itself was like. This was introduced by the Pentagon at the start of the war to allow journalists to attach themselves to invading military units and see the fighting up close. As Iraq grew steadily more violent, embedding became one of the main ways journalists could get out into the field. Baghdad continues to be a very dangerous place for journalists, with kidnapping an ever-present concern. (Whenever I traveled outside the CBS News compound where I stayed, I had to go in three cars, two of them armored, accompanied by eight armed guards.) Embedding thus remains an important means of seeing the country.
The neighborhood I was going to see was Dora. Once a solidly middle-class district full of ex-Baathists, Dora had gradually been taken over by al-Qaeda in Iraq, which had imposed an Islamic reign of terror. Fighting back, Shiite militiamen had waged their own bloody war on the population, with mutilated bodies regularly turning up on the street. More than two hundred US soldiers had died there in the first half of 2007 alone.1 But with the Sunni backlash against al-Qaeda and the parallel adoption of counterinsurgency tactics by the US military, the neighborhood had lately become pacified, and it was now a showcase for visiting journalists and pundits.
At precisely nine o'clock, a convoy of four US military vehicles pulled into the asphalt lot near the crossed sabers. From one of them emerged a trim, fair-haired man in camouflage fatigues who introduced himself as Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Watson, the commanding officer of the unit I was joining. "We're going in an MRAP, OK?" he said, gesturing toward a bulky, bristling Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle. A sort of armored truck with heavy metal plates along its bottom, the MRAP was designed to provide extra protection against roadside bombs, but since being introduced last year, it has already proved vulnerable to a new generation of powerful explosives.
Inside, it was surprisingly comfortable, with two seats on either side facing in toward one another, plus room for a gunner standing upright in the center. I took a seat opposite Watson and Captain Brett Walker, the public affairs officer (PAO) assigned to me. How closely, I wondered, would he watch over me? With three Humvees in tow, we rumbled out of the Green Zone and south toward Dora, which was just a few miles away. A year ago, Watson told me above the roar of the engine, Dora was "the most hotly contested area in Baghdad." Now it was one of the safest. The Dora marketplace, which a year earlier had been all but shuttered, was now home to some eight hundred shops and stalls. "The surge has had a huge impact," Watson said; hundreds of the 30,000 additional troops sent to Iraq had been assigned to this one neighborhood. There, he went on, they had worked closely with both the Iraqi Security Forces and the Sons of Iraq, the mix of Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents who, as part of the Sunni "Awakening," had turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq. With al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups now on the run, the Americans were trying to consolidate the gains by joining with local residents to improve services and repair infrastructure.
"That's what it's all about—interacting with the population," Watson said. One of the most difficult things, he went on, was figuring out how the government worked. "What's that book by Gladwell?" he asked. "The Tipping Point? Iraqis lack connectors. They're not willing to go out to look for people to coordinate with." I was a bit startled; was Malcolm Gladwell helping to shape US military strategy in Iraq? Watson expressed pride at how the local beladiya (municipality) had cleared the marketplace of trash. "We put the squeeze on them," he said. "We consider it a huge success when we get the Iraqis to do the job themselves."
With that, we arrived in the marketplace. The MRAP's back door sprung open and, descending, I found myself surrounded by the members of the infantry patrol that was to show me around the market. All I could see for the moment, however, was a palisade of concrete walls extending far down the road—the famous blast walls that the US military had erected throughout Baghdad to keep warring Sunnis and Shiites apart. Nearby, however, there was an opening in the wall, and passing through it I found myself amid a gritty jumble of shops and stalls. Spread out on mottled wooden tables were clumps of tomatoes and cucumbers, onions and potatoes. As we walked along the steamy streets and the humble shops lining them, I was told about the microgrants (ranging up to $5,000) that the battalion was handing out to storeowners to help them get started. Iraqi kids kept running up to us and shouting "Meester, meester!" The adults, however, held back, looking sullen. What, I wondered, was going through their minds?
At one point, Captain Walker, the PAO, gestured toward some sewer-repair work being done in the street. "This isn't being staged," he assured me. "The beladiya is fixing this on their own." His comment, though, put the thought in my mind. Was all this somehow being put on for my benefit? While on patrol, for instance, we ran into a middle-aged man wearing a keffiyah and flowing robe. He was introduced as Sheikh Ahmed, a central figure in the local Awakening group. With the help of an Army interpreter, he effusively praised the Coalition. "We want to give them thanks from our side for how much they have helped to defeat al-Qaeda," he said, touching his heart.
From the market we drove a short distance to Joint Security Station Masafi. Located in a half-finished, rough-hewn shopping complex, this was a joint outpost for US and Iraqi forces. Here soldiers came to rest and sleep between patrols as well as to collect intelligence and plan operations. Lieutenant Colonel Watson reappeared for some final questions before he moved on to other business. What more had to be done, I asked, before the troops could begin to go home? Improving the Iraqi security forces and providing essential services, he said—a formula I'd heard many, many times. "Do you want to bring up our time in Taji?" said PAO Walker, who was listening in. Thus prompted, Watson described the training his men had received at a counterinsurgency academy located on an air base north of Baghdad. At another point, as Watson was discussing the importance of working with the community, Walker again intervened, ticking off the many cases of state-building the battalion had studied, from the school-building campaign in the Philippines to the CORDS program in Vietnam.
Walker's intrusiveness surprised me. In our conversations, he had seemed smart and affable. As he had told me, he had grown up in the Bay Area, the son of ex-hippies who were opposed to the war. He had gone to West Point as an act of rebellion. His father, a lawyer and writer, was a reader of The New York Review. But now he was becoming heavy-handed, and I couldn't help but frown.
Soon we were back on patrol, and the show continued. At a local school the US had helped refurbish, the headmaster described her students' great progress. At an intersection guarded by three Sons of Iraq, an interpreter relayed to me their gratitude for all the US had done. I was beginning to feel as if I were in my own version of The Truman Show, with some hidden hand directing the action.
But then something unexpected happened. Captain Walker asked if I would like to see a house that US soldiers had blown up a few days earlier after discovering bomb-making materials inside a fake wall. When we got to the site, we found two women and two girls standing on a pile of bricks that had once been their home, looking dazed. As the captain who had carried out the operation began describing it, some residents from the neighborhood gathered around. The explosion had gone off with such force that several adjoining houses had been damaged, and their occupants were now standing glumly around. "Tell them I'll be back tomorrow to listen to everyone's story," the captain told the interpreter, but after he relayed this, the locals began complaining loudly. As we headed back to our vehicles, the interpreter explained that the people were upset at the damage their homes had suffered and were demanding compensation. It was a reminder that counterinsurgency is not all about microgrants and trash removal—that it also involves aggressive actions like nighttime house raids, mass roundups of young men, and the blowing up of houses.
Soon after, there was another unscripted moment. While waiting with a group of soldiers to board some Humvees that were to take us to Forward Operating Base Falcon, one of the main US bases in southern Baghdad, I was waved over by one of them. "Do you know Chris Hedges?" he asked. When I said I did, the soldier, a captain and West Point graduate, told me that he had met Hedges at a conference in the United States and admired his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, which explores the way soldiers—and journalists—become hooked on the danger and romance of war. Another captain with whom he'd been chatting began telling me how much he wanted to leave the Army but couldn't because he'd been "stop-lossed," i.e., forced to remain in uniform under a contractual clause that allows the military to keep soldiers from leaving for up to eight years after the date of their initial sign-up. Before I could learn more, another captain came over to say how eager he was to roll up some more insurgents, and the other captains fell silent.
It was now time to leave, and to my disappointment the two captains got into a different vehicle. Before coming to Iraq, I had heard a great deal about the growing exodus of captains from the Army and the crisis this was causing in the military's leadership ranks,2 and here I'd lost a chance to talk to two of them. When we arrived at FOB Falcon —a sprawling facility filled with barracks, firing ranges, volleyball fields, helipads, a mess hall, and Internet terminals for the thousands of soldiers stationed there—Captain Walker, who had noticed my encounter with the two captains, told me that he could get their cell phone numbers for me if I wanted. He went on to say that there were many other captains in the battalion who had been stop-lossed, and that staff sergeants and other senior noncommissioned officers were joining the exodus as well. "They're burned out," he said, explaining that the repeated deployments and extension of tours to fifteen months had placed an unbearable strain on many officers' lives. To my surprise, Walker proceeded to introduce me to both a captain and a staff sergeant who were determined to leave the Army as soon as they could.
The sergeant, a military intelligence officer named Zachery Brown, told me how the repeated deployments were driving up divorce rates among noncommissioned officers. They were also hard on single men like himself, but this, he said, was not the reason he was leaving. "I don't want to get too political," he observed, "but the way it looks now—it's almost as if we're fighting a perpetual war." He was quick to point out that he was "a patriotic guy" who had joined the military right after September 11. Sent to Afghanistan, he had felt that he had genuinely been able to help people. Back in the US, he had started taking classes, and that, he said, is when his "liberalization" had begun. It had continued in Iraq. "We're helping people here," the sergeant said.
If we weren't here, there are a lot of people who'd be dead the next day. But we're spinning our wheels. Al-Qaeda is defeated, but now we face Iraq's internal problems. They have to be handled politically and socially. I wouldn't say that I don't believe in the mission here, but we're not going about it in the right way.
Was there another way? "No, I don't really think so," Brown said. General David Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy, with its stress on protecting the local population, had been very effective, but, he added, "it's a thin veneer. Beneath it—no matter how we try to make it look—we're ultimately occupiers. And I don't think you can democratize a country by being occupiers. Though we've made a lot of progress, the core issues remain. And if we can't find a political solution to them, we'll never get out of here." Most of his fellow intel officers, he noted, felt the same way.
Captain Walker came to escort me to the helipad for my flight back to the Green Zone. Struck by how candid Sergeant Brown had been, I thanked Walker for having introduced me to him. In the waiting room, I commented on the sudden turn my excursion had seemed to take. Acknowledging this, Walker told me that during my final interview with Lieutenant Colonel Watson, when he had seen the look of annoyance on my face, he had decided to set aside his usual spiel and be more straightforward. The visit to the flattened house, he told me, had not been on the original itinerary, but he had decided it was important for me to see it so as to understand that war is not "patty cake." He had also wanted me to speak with captains and sergeants who were leaving the Army so that I could grasp the heavy toll the war was taking on the troops. In fact, he told me, he himself was planning to get out as soon as he could. He had recently married and wanted to start a family, and he didn't think he could do so while still in uniform.
A few minutes later, I boarded a Black Hawk helicopter and was soon soaring over Baghdad at night. Back in the Green Zone, as I walked to the guesthouse where I was staying for the night, I reflected on my extraordinary day. As I'd expected, my embed had provided little opportunity to hear the Iraqi point of view. Rather, it offered a look at the war through the eyes of the US military, and in that respect it had been very revealing. On the one hand, it had left me with little doubt about the very real gains the surge had brought about, and about the effectiveness of the Petraeus-led counterinsurgency strategy. The situation in Dora had obviously improved, and the combination of aggressive raids, large-scale detentions, and mixing with the community (together with the Sunni Awakening) had had a big hand in achieving that.
At the same time, I'd gotten a look at the crushing effect the war is having on the troops. The breakdown in the Army has advanced so far that in a mere thirteen hours, I could see the rising dissatisfaction, anger, and rebellion within it. The message from the soldiers themselves was that keeping so large a force in the field over the long term seemed unsustainable.
But how to draw that force down? As Sergeant Brown had observed, the success in Dora and other neighborhoods has been largely tactical in nature. Only by joining it to a broader political strategy could the space created by the surge be fully exploited. What was the US doing in that regard? Did it have an exit strategy?
That was a question I explored with a senior US official who took me to lunch at a dining hall in Saddam's former Republican Palace. It was a cavernous place, with hundreds of American diplomats, military officers, contractors, and bureaucrats filling their plates with burgers, burritos, sandwiches, and salads, all provided by KRB Corporation (formerly part of Halliburton) at $32 a head. "For all that's happened over the last five years," the official said, "we'll be remembered more for what we do over the next five." As a model, he cited the Balkans and Eastern Europe. This struck me as unrealistic. How often, I wondered, did he get out of the Green Zone to meet with Baghdad residents whose supply of electricity is down to two hours a day, or visit the pharmacies where basic medications like Tylenol are unavailable, or see the wretched tents and shacks where many of the two-million-plus internally displaced Iraqis have been forced to live?
In fact, this official told me, any trip he makes out of the Green Zone requires the deployment of thirty armed guards and two Black Hawk helicopters, all coordinated by the friendly young men at Blackwater. Cooped up in the Green Zone, embassy officials tend to be poorly informed about what's going on outside it. Military officers, who have a much easier time getting around, tend to know much more. That helps to explain why journalists are drawn to them as sources. It also helps explain why the political aspects of the US presence get far less coverage than the military ones.
In pursuing those political aspects, I found it much more rewarding to talk with Iraq specialists at American and British universities and think tanks who, traveling into and out of the country, are less beholden to government dogma. It was from them that I learned that the Bush administration, in addition to launching the much-publicized military surge, had mounted a little-known political surge as well. Its main elements were spelled out in a classified "Joint Campaign Plan" completed in May 2007. Recognizing how singularly ineffective the Iraqi government has been in delivering services to the people, the plan proposed a huge state-building campaign, spearheaded by a sharp expansion in the US advisory effort.
The campaign got under way last summer. Specialists from Treasury and Justice, Commerce and Agriculture were assigned to government ministries to help draw up budgets and weed out sectarian elements. The Agency for International Development and the Army Corps of Engineers set up projects to boost nutrition and reinforce dams. Provincial Reconstruction Teams were stationed in Baghdad and elsewhere to help repair infrastructure, improve water and electrical systems, and stimulate the economy. One main goal was to use some of Iraq's new oil wealth ($41 billion in 2007 alone) to create jobs that would help occupy the legions of aimless young men who might otherwise join the country's many militias.
About a year has passed since the campaign began. And from talks with several Green Zone visitors who are familiar with it, I learned that, by and large, it has been an utter failure. "Dysfunctional" is how one visiting adviser described it, citing bitter interagency battles, micromanagement from Washington, and an acute mismatch between the skills of the advisers and the needs of the Iraqi government. "What we have," he said, "are cattle calls—a bunch of random people sent over with widely varying skills who can't speak the language, who've never worked in this type of environment, and whom the Iraqis didn't even ask for."
(Much more than mere disorganization and incompetence may be involved. According to a recent BBC investigation, as much as $23 billion in US aid allocated to contractors working in Iraq may have been lost, stolen, or not properly accounted for. "The money that's gone into waste, fraud, and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous," Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, commented, adding that this "may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history.")
Listening to the visiting adviser, I was reminded of the many stories I'd heard about the Coalition Provisional Authority and the mess it had created trying to remake Iraq to conform to neoconservative fantasies back in Washington. Could things still be as bad as that? Yes they were, this adviser said. "It's been one of the most disillusioning surprises for me," he explained.
I had read all the books and articles about the CPA and about how disastrous it had been. I assumed that competent people in the US government were reading the same things on the CPA and that they must have fixed it. So when I got to Iraq and found it was still disorganized and completely out of sync with what the Iraqis were doing, I was shocked.
"The level of incoherence is amazing," another specialist told me. "The US embassy is one profoundly incoherent organization advising another incoherent organization—the Iraqi government." The State Department, this adviser went on, "is not set up for state-building." But the problem went far beyond State, he said, with a profound lack of understanding apparent at "the highest levels of the US government."
Indeed, in designing the political surge, the US government failed to understand that the main problem is not simply the incompetence of the Iraqi government but its very legitimacy. The two main parties in the government—Dawa and the larger Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC)—have a weak popular base. Representing businessmen and professionals, their principal leaders spent most of the Saddam years outside the country, returning only after the US invasion. In ruling, they rely on the support of the two main Kurdish parties, which have their own narrow Kurdish agenda. The government is thus seen as consisting mainly of "outsiders" who debate endlessly and futilely behind the heavily fortified walls of the Green Zone. They are widely loathed by Iraq's "insiders," those who stayed in Iraq under Saddam and who today share the daily hardships of the people. Foremost among them are the followers of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who make up the largest mass movement in the country. Yet the Bush administration has relentlessly sought to marginalize al-Sadr while propping up the detested government.3
One of the few positive developments I heard mentioned during my stay was the rush of new political activity at the local level. In villages, towns, and provinces, a new, more authentic set of political actors seems to be emerging. The provincial elections due to be held by the end of the year could help bolster their position. For that to happen, though, violence must be held in check. Iraq is full of vicious militias, warlords, and thugs patiently waiting for the Americans to leave, and with the unemployment rate at 50 percent or higher, there's a huge pool of potential recruits. This past May was celebrated as a "good" month, yet more than five hundred Iraqis were reported killed during it, and no doubt hundreds more died without ever being tallied. An official at the US embassy's Office of Hostage Affairs told me that at least twenty-five kidnappings take place in Iraq every day. In much of the world, that would be considered catastrophic.
"If Barack Obama is elected, he's going to find it very hard to withdraw," I was told by Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist at Queen Mary College at the University of London and a frequent visitor to Baghdad. "He won't be able to radically change US policy until the end of his first term. The key will be to find a way to rework the US presence so as to prevent the outbreak of another civil war."
During my research, I encountered little fresh thinking about how to go about that. I did, however, come away believing that there's one critical step the United States could take to ease the pressure on its troops and open the way for an eventual reduction in their number.
Throughout my stay in Baghdad, I heard many chilling stories about the brutality of the Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM), or the Mahdi Army. Created by Moqtada al-Sadr in 2003, this Shiite militia won broad popularity by providing services to the poor and by aggressively challenging the US occupation, but over the last two to three years its ranks have swelled with violent young men interested more in amassing power and wealth than in pressing any political agenda. I heard about how, during the 2006 "battle for Baghdad," JAM-linked thugs had waged an assassination campaign against Sunni merchants, businessmen, and other prominent Iraqis. I was told how the JAM, in taking over the health ministry, had set about liquidating Sunni doctors and nurses. And, in Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq, Patrick Cockburn's richly detailed and revealing new book, I read about how Cockburn himself had been seized and nearly executed at a JAM checkpoint in 2004.4
Hoping to learn more about the group's operations, I arranged to talk with a sheikh who was one of its founding members. We met in the lobby of the al-Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone. The sheikh, who would give his name only as al-Naseri, had come there to see Tahseen al-Shaikhi, a spokesman for the Nouri al-Maliki government who in late March had been abducted from his home by forty armed men who were almost certainly linked to the JAM. After three days of being moved from place to place, al-Shaikhi had been released, thanks to the intervention of Sheikh al-Naseri. Al-Shaikhi's house had been burned to the ground during the attack, and he and his family were now living in the al-Rasheed. Al-Naseri had come to see him because he had been unable to find work since leaving the JAM a year earlier and hoped al-Shaikhi could help find him a job with the government.
I asked the sheikh why he had left the JAM. "Because of the Iranian influence," he said. "They give money to criminals to kill civilians." The going rate, he said, was $1,500 for planting an IED and $2,000 for recording the explosion with a video camera. "That's why people fight," he said. "They need the money." Like many others I spoke with, al-Naseri distinguished between the JAM proper, which remains popular with poor Shiites, and the so-called special groups that have become prominent within it—groups that, he said, "worked for Iran in the name of the JAM."5 Moqtada al-Sadr, with whom, he said, he was very close, "does not agree with what is happening now. He rejects all these bad things going on with the JAM." Fingering a set of blue worry beads, he added, "All Iraqis reject the interference of Iran in Iraqi affairs."
Before coming to Iraq, I had been skeptical of the many statements US officials had put out about Iran's involvement there. They sounded too canned, too overstated, too reminiscent of the exaggerated claims made about Saddam in the run-up to the Iraq war. My visit to Baghdad cured me of that.
"It's all about Iran," Michael Ware, CNN's Baghdad correspondent, told me when I visited him at the scruffy villa that houses the network's bureau. Since 2003, no Western journalist has spent more time in Iraq than Ware, and no journalist has a broader collection of sources. In his rooftop interviews with Wolf Blitzer, he delights in tweaking official Washington. When John McCain made his famous, closely guarded tour of a marketplace in Baghdad in March 2007, for instance, Ware mocked his claim that it was truly safe for Americans to walk freely around the city.
When I saw Ware in Baghdad, all he wanted to talk about was Iran. "Iran's agents of influence go to the top of the Iraqi government," he said. "Twenty-three members of the Iraqi Parliament are permanent members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard." Hezbollah operatives, he said, were training JAM members in guerrilla warfare, while a senior member of al-Qaeda was being sheltered in Iran. Even the Kurds were in deep with the Iranians, he said. Under Saddam, for instance, Jalal Talabani, the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan who is now president of Iraq, ran weapons and communications lines through Iran. Finally, there was Ahmad Chalabi, the influential former exile who had urged the Americans to invade and then fallen out with them, allegedly over his ties to Tehran. "All the time, he was working for Iran!" Ware told me.6
Of all the unintended consequences of the US invasion of Iraq, surely the most paradoxical is the way it has boosted Iran's position in the region. In toppling Saddam, the United States removed from power Iran's mortal enemy, the leader of a regime with which it had fought a devastating eight-year war that had cost it a half-million lives. The electoral system the Bush administration devised helped bring to power a Shiite majority with long-standing cultural, religious, and economic ties to Iran. The SIIC, the main government party, was founded in Iran and remains so close to Tehran that many Iraqis shun it for having a "Persian taint." Iran is erecting mosques and power plants in the Shiite south and investing heavily in construction and communications in the Kurdish north. "The only one winning here is Iran," an Iraqi journalist observed. "And they're losing zero people."
Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish parliamentarian, told me that Iran—fearful that the United States will turn its weapons in its direction—"is doing everything in its power to pin down the US and make it fail in Iraq." The Bush administration has responded mainly with denunciations, protestations, and threats. Yet these have simply spurred Iran on. Top Iraqi officials have often urged the Americans to tone down their rhetoric. Last fall, for instance, Mowaffaq al-Rubai'e, Iraq's national security adviser, on a visit to the Nixon Center in Washington, warned against the idea of attacking Iran: "They will react against us. They will not come to New York. They will not come to Washington. They will come to us, I can tell you that, and we will be in big, big trouble."
Last year, US Ambassador Ryan Crocker did initiate a series of meetings with his Iranian counterpart to discuss issues of mutual interest in Iraq, but these meetings have foundered. The Iranians have pushed for talks with Washington at a much higher level, but President Bush, adhering to his we-don't-talk-to-terrorists credo, has repeatedly rebuffed them.
The Iranian regime, of course, has contributed to its own isolation. Its secrecy about its uranium enrichment program, together with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's periodic promises to wipe Israel off the map, have stirred protests and anger around the world. Yet in refusing to talk with Iran, the White House seems to be harming its own interests. "The Iranians have more in common with the United States in terms of their interests in Iraq than most of the other neighboring states," observes Joost Hiltermann, deputy Middle East program director for the International Crisis Group. "They don't like having 140,000 American troops on their border, but they don't want them to leave precipitously, either—there would be chaos. The Iranians want an Iraq that is unified but weak and friendly. If the United States were to leave behind a vacuum—that would scare everybody." Iran, Hiltermann added, "has a crazy president. But he's not the real power. The Iranians are very pragmatic. No doubt they'd make a deal." The International Crisis Group has pushed for a regional conference in the spirit of the Dayton conference on Yugoslavia and the Bonn conference on Afghanistan.7
With America's Iraqi allies urging the United States to negotiate with Iran, and with the Iranians themselves eager for such contacts, the Bush administration's resistance seems puzzling. Indeed, Washington's refusal to engage in vigorous regional diplomacy may be its most serious political blunder of all. If the United States is ever to withdraw from Iraq, reaching some accommodation with Iran would seem essential. Trying to make sense of this, I recalled something Toby Dodge had told me: "When the Americans go home, the Iranians will inherit the earth." Iranian hegemony over Iraq: that is the Bush administration's worst nightmare. The Iraq invasion was designed to project American power in the region at Iran's expense; instead, it has done the exact opposite. And so it dawned on me: no matter what happens in Iraq, the Bush administration doesn't want to leave, since if it does, Iran, in one way or another, will take over. That helps explain recent reports that Washington, in negotiating a long-term status of forces agreement with Iraq, is determined to maintain nearly sixty bases there indefinitely—a position the government of Prime Minister al-Maliki is strongly resisting.8
John McCain, of course, has fully signed on to the Bush approach. Barack Obama, by contrast, has promised to pursue "aggressive diplomacy" with Iran. Are Americans ready for such a change? Or will they continue to view Iran as a central part of the axis of evil? On that question, the election in November may hinge.
—June 18, 2008
This Issue
July 17, 2008
His Royal Shyness: King Hussein and Israel
Alexandra Zavis, "Iraq's 'Alamo' Simmers," Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2007. ↩
See, for example, Andrew Tilghman, "The Army's Other Crisis," The Washington Monthly, December 2007. ↩
For a lucid description of the outsider/insider divide, see Phebe Marr, "Iraq's New Political Map," US Institute of Peace, January 2007. ↩
Scribner, 2008. See also "Iraq's Civil War, the Sadrists, and the Surge," International Crisis Group, February 2008. In anticipation of the upcoming provincial elections, al-Sadr announced in mid-June that he was dividing his movement into two branches—one that would remained armed and operate underground, and another that would concentrate on politics and providing basic services to Iraqis. ↩
The US military maintains that nearly three quarters of the attacks that kill or wound its soldiers in Baghdad are carried out by Sadrist special groups. See Stephen Farrell and Alissa J. Rubin, "Groups with Iran's Backing Blamed for Baghdad Attacks," The New York Times, April 24, 2008. ↩
For more on Chalabi's Iranian ties, see Aram Roston, The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi (Nation Books, 2008), especially Chapter 48, "The Iran Connection." ↩
See "After Baker-Hamilton: What to Do in Iraq," International Crisis Group, December 19, 2006. ↩
In his new book War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq (Simon and Schuster, 2008), NBC correspondent Richard Engel relates a fascinating hour-and-a-half interview he had with George Bush in 2007 in which he urged the President to undertake a major diplomatic initiative in the Middle East—the only way, Engel argued, some degree of stability could be achieved in Iraq. Bush dismissed the idea, telling Engel that the war in Iraq "is going to take forty years." Engel also writes that Bush "seemed genuinely surprised" at the suggestion that US actions in Iraq are helping Iran. ↩


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Dorthy Goelzer was a long term employee of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, serving as the administrative assistant to the County Administrative Coordinator, Adam Payne. She consistently received good performance evaluations. In 2002 Goelzer began to have significant health issues necessitating the use of FMLA leave, which was approved. All told she used 312 hours of sick leave in 2002, the equivalent of nearly 39 days. In her 2002 performance review Payne noted that Goelzer "had" an excellent attendance record in the past, but that she used 39 days of sick leave in 2002. Goelzer's health problems continued in 2003. She used 176 hours of approved FMLA leave for additional surgery and doctors appointments throughout the year, a fact noted by Payne in her 2003 performance review. This time, however, he did not award her a merit increase. In response to Goelzer's challenge to the decision, Payne referenced her use of nearly 113 days of sick leave and vacation during the past two years. In 2004 she used 94 hours of sick leave. She took approved intermittent FMLA leave in 2004 and 2005 to care for her mother. While she received merit increases in 2004 and 2005, she was told that the increases were not more because of her absences to care for her mother.
In 2006, Goelzer requested two months of FMLA leave to undergo foot surgery. Her request was approved. In the meantime, Mr. Payne's position was changed to County Administrator. In his new position, he had the authority to discharge Goelzer on his own accord. Payne terminated Goelzer two weeks before she was scheduled to take FMLA leave. He hired a replacement sometime thereafter.
Goelzer filed suit alleging that her termination and failure to reinstate her from leave violated the FMLA. The County argued that Payne simply exercised his legal authority to replace Goelzer with someone of his own choosing who had a grater skill set, and that it had nothing to do with her exercise of FMLA rights.
In reversing the award of summary judgment for the County, the Seventh Circuit initially conceded that this was one possible explanation for the termination decision a jury might choose to believe. However, the Court went on to find that a jury might also choose to believe that the decision to terminate Goelzer was due to her protected FMLA activity. As evidence, the Court noted:
- Comments made by Payne expressing frustration with Goelzer's use of FMLA leave in her past performance evaluations
- References in her performance evaluations contrasting her past "excellent" attendance with her her current heavy FMLA leave usage
- Payne's explanation that Goelzer did not receive a larger merit increase because she took off too much time to care for her mother- on FMLA leave
- The absence of evidence in performance reviews evidencing Payne's alleged concern with her deficient skill set and consistent satisfactory performance ratings
- The absence of evidence that Payne had taken action to remove Goezler for performance deficiencies before he received his promotion
- The absence of evidence that Payne was restructuring Goezler's job to include a greater skill set; and
- The fact that he terminated Goezler shortly after her request for two months of FMLA leave.
Comment: The FMLA prohibits an employer from interfering with or discriminating against an epmloyee for exercising FMLA rights. It is also well established that an employee's exercise of FMLA rights does insulate the employee from performance-based adverse actions, including removal. However, in order to effectively establish that the adverse action is due to performance deficiencies and not the exercise of FMLA rights, the facts must be consistent with the employer's non-discriminatory explanation. That was not the case in Goelzer. The references to leave usage, including FMLA leave, in annual performance evaluations, the denial of merit benefits based on leave usage, including FMLA leave, and the absence of evidence supporting the employer's assertion of deficient performance, led the Court to conclude that there was sufficient material facts at issue to defeat summary judgment. While the County may ultimately convince a jury that it did not violate the FMLA, the cost to litigate or settle this matter rose dramatically as a result of the Seventh Circuit's decision.
Employer's would be well-advised not to include references to FMLA usage in performance reviews, however benign the intention. If the employee does not receive perfect performance marks and the highest monetary bump, it is relatively easy for the employee to point to the reference to FMLA usage as the real reason for their less than stellar performance review. As demonstrated in Goelzer, that could be an expensive mistake.
The case also reaffirms that managers who have problems with an employee's performance need to address that problems. You might think that by giving an employee a satisfactory performance review you have really given them a bad review. In Goezler, that strategy back-fired. The satisfactory review undermined the County's argument that the employee was unsatisfactory, at least for purposes of summary judgment.
The Seventh Circuit covers Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.
Goelzer v. Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, No. 09-2283 (7th Cir. May 12, 2010)

subset: commoncrawl


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Voting closes today so pop over and vote for whatever takes your fancy in the four categories. You'll also find a link to all 130 tutorials that were submitted to the contest - tons of free inspiration all in the one spot!
So, back to the lovely town of Apt which is located in the Luberon Valley, Provence.
We visited about a month ago on a Saturday, because Saturday is market day. And Sara Louise had told us Apt is one of her favourite markets so we thought we'd better check it out.
Sara was right. The markets are large, stretched out along many of Apt's picturesque streets and alleys, and have a great variety of vendors.
Provençal quilting (known as boutis) where stuffing is used between two wholecloths
I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the cheese.
Walking through the stalls we came upon the 11th century Cathédrale Sainte--Anne.
Looks a little spooky, huh?
If you want more spookiness you can go down under the main altar into a pre-Roman crypt.
And then down another level to the spot where Christian worship supposedly first occurred in the town.
The passageway has stone tiles (around 1000 years old) decorating the ceiling and there are relics housed behind the grate (said to be the bones of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, but I have no idea how they verify these things.)
Notes and prayers to St Anne had been stuffed through the grill:
After the markets began to close up we walked a little further, trying to find a restaurant for lunch (they were all full).
So instead we went to a wood-fired pizza van and picked up some lunch-to-go:
Which we ate in the park across the road:
The pizza was fantastic and the kids had a ball running around the grounds.
So don't forget - if you're looking for a great market, try Apt on a Saturday.
It's exactly two weeks and two days until we leave France. I think I've finally come to terms with it.
Plus we've run out of Vegemite so it must be time to go home.
Have a great weekend, everyone. We're off on a one-night getaway in Gordes for our 14th wedding anniversary. Photos will follow! (Of Gordes, not our anniversary celebrations. Ahem ;)


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What's a Scandal-Ridden Celeb to Do? Go to Church
A Bit of Old-Time Religion May Be the Easiest Way to Revamp a Tainted Rep
By SHEILA MARIKAR
Jan. 4, 2008 —
Forget Le Deux, Bungalow 8 and Pure.
The hottest place for starlets to go after a scandal isn't at all exclusive, has satellite locations all over the country, and is most bumping on Sunday mornings--church.
Mischa Barton is the latest young star to pay a visit to God's house following public fallout from bad publicity. One week after she was busted for DUI and drug possession (two days after Christmas, no less) the former "O.C." actress was snapped walking down the steps of Beverly Hills' Good Shepherd Catholic Church, head bowed, virginal white dress flowing, church brochure in hand.
Paris Hilton toted the Bible around after her stint in jail on DUI charges. "High School Musical" star Vanessa Hudgens went to church after nude photographs of her stormed the Internet.
Looking at these scandal-ridden stars trying to make good in the eyes of God and the public, you'd think Mary Magdalene could've remade herself into the Virgin Mary if only she'd had the right publicist. Things haven't changed much since the olden days: Latching onto religion is one of the most effective ways for celebrities to show the world they're cleaning up their act.
"The surest, safest way to try to get out of a scandal is to pull out a Bible and invoke the name of God," said Michael Musto, gossip columnist for the Village Voice. "In the world of celebrity spin control, this is supposed to instantly confer sanctity and good intentions on you while dissolving all past heathenism.
"Surely there are some serious worshipers in La La Land, but in the case of Paris, her devoutness came under question on Larry King's show when she couldn't name a single passage she liked. Not even 'the part with the snake and the apple.'" he added, referring to Hilton's post-prison interview in which she pledged she had found a purpose in life beyond partying.
If paparazzi photos are to be believed, Barton, like Hilton, is more likely to frequent a strip of sand or a red carpet premiere than a house of faith. The angelic picture of her descending from the church may have been more contrived than candid.
"Anyone who's ever met [Mischa] or watched her knows that she has not been spending the preponderance of the last two years in Bible study class," said celebrity publicist Michael Levine. "The timing does seem suspect and convenient. It seems a little over the top."
But stars may not need to prove their faith is real to reap the benefits of a photo op with God.
"The question remains: Is it real or is it staged? That level of ambiguity actually adds to the interest. It leaves the story open, and we can continue to speculate on that very question," said Lance Strate, chairman of Fordham University's communication and media studies department.
If there's one thing America's celebrity-obsessed culture loves more than a scandal it's a comeback, or at least an attempt at one, and religion is a fast way to lift a career out of the ashes.
It's not just starlets. In 2007, Don Imus met with the Rev. Al Sharpton after his racist and sexist on-air tirade. Eight months later, Imus got his radio show back. So Mischa, don't fret. Put on your Sunday best and wait for the casting agents to come calling.
"We're very used to the story where someone encounters a problem, gains redemption, admits their sins and asks for forgiveness. That plays very well," Strate said. "And it sends that kind of message to the industry, reassuring them that this person is still a business commodity. It humanizes the celebrity. It turns them into a kind of moral lesson."


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Aero Mould Co., Ltd
Mobile/whatsapp: 0086-13666469798
Add: 18# KaiTuo Road, XinQian Street, Huangyan District, Taizhou, Zhejiang, China
Aero Mould Co., Ltd located in the "China mould town" Huangyan, is a professional manufacturer of various types of plastic injection mould. We have been committed to all kinds of high-quality mould R&D and making, including high speed thin wall mould, double color mould, multi-cavity cap mould, home appliance mould, pipe fitting mould, etc.
Our mission is to be an extension of our customers and help their products enter the market quicker and more cost-effectively than their competitors. If you need help with new product development or partial design assistance, our project management team will work with you to get your products to market faster.
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Mobile/whatsapp: 0086-13666469798
Add: 18# KaiTuo Road, XinQian Street, Huangyan District, Taizhou, Zhejiang, China


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Members Only
Seascape Sports Club is one of the finest Sports Resorts in the United States. The Club is family owned and operated and has been part of the Monterey Bay Community since 1972. The best way to learn about our various membership programs is to tour our facilities. To arrange an appointment please call (831) 688-1993 and ask to speak to a manager or enter your email below.


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Wineries in San Francisco Bay Area
Sort by Name |
Ahlgren Vineyard
Ahlgren Vineyard is based in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Dexter and Valerie Ahlgren produce several estate wines and also buy grapes from other vineyard owners.
Beauregard Vineyards
Beauregard Vineyards is a premium quality producer that makes Syrah and Pinot Noir. They buy Syrah from Zayante Vineyard and grow Pinot Noir in their Trout Gulch Vineyard.
Cedar Mountain Winery
Located on the eastern side of the Livermore Valley, Cedar Mountain is a small, family owned and operated winery. They are best known for their Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.
Clos LaChance
Clos LaChance makes a number of wines with grapes sourced from various AVAs. Owners Bill and Brenda Murphy produce an excellent Chardonnay with grapes from the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Concannon Vineyard
The historical significance of Concannon Vineyard cannot be overstated. Founder James Concannon was a very influential, early vintner in the San Francisco Bay Area. More recently, the winery has been turning heads with their Petite Sirah.
Creekview Vineyards
Creekview Vineyards was established in 2005 and released their first vintage in 2007. The winery and vineyards are situated in the hillsides just east of the town of San Martin in the Santa Clara Valley wine region.
Crooked Vine Winery
Crooked Vine Winery is dedicated to producing premium quality wines from grapes grown in Livermore Valley. They may be the newest winery in Livermore, but they produce one of its best Zinfandels.
David Bruce Winery
David Bruce Winery is one of the oldest wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Pinot Noir is their specialty; in 2004, David Bruce entered eight different Pinots into various state wine competitions, and won eight gold medals.
Fernwood Cellars
Fernwood Cellars was established by Matt Oetinger. He is also the winemaker and produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Chardonnay and Syrah. Oetinger is dedicated to sustainable farming practices.
Fortino Winery
In 1970, Ernest Fortino established Fortino Winery. The winery makes many different wines, but specializes in Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Merlot, Charbono, and Chardonnay.
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
CLASSICS OF CRAP: VOLUME 17-Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Ho Ho Ho, and happy holidays, bad movie buffs! This week's Classic of Crap is an obscure 1964 stinker called Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. If you've seen this flick, you probably watched it on MST3K, as I did. It is unspeakably bad. Bad movies for adults are one thing, but once you enter the arena of watching bad movies made for kids, hooo boy. It's a whole different ball game.
So, about the movie. Martians kidnap Santa Claus and force him to give presents to the good little martian children. Santa, plus two obnoxious kids, fight them off with toys. There's also a giant robot. Yep. I really don't know what else to say about this one. It made me want to gouge my eyes out with a mellon baller. So, should you watch it? Hell no. Stay far away. Just watching the trailer will break your soul.
Monday, December 19, 2011
CLASSICS OF CRAP: VOLUME 16-The Lawnmower Man
Hey bad movie lovers, and welcome back to Classics of Crap. Today's crap movie is one that probably means a lot to you if you were a kid in the early 90's. I remember seeing The Lawnmower Man with friends at a mall in Chicago, and afterwords watching other kids use a virtual reality simulator they set up in the mall, very similar to what you saw in the movie. At the time virtual reality was quite a hot idea. You paid 40 bucks for a half hour of pretending you were in a virtual room picking up a virtual pencil, or blasting a virtual mech suit.
Lawnmower Man came right at the crest of the fad, trumpeting its revolutionary computer effects. Were they impressive at the time? Sure. Do they age well? Hell no. But ripping on a movie because of its outdated effects isn't fair. I'd rather champion this movie for all it does right. For example: Virtual Reality possessed monkey getting blown away! Guy getting chopped up by a lawnmower! Virtual sex scene! Bad guy's face getting turned into marbles! Priest bursting into digital flame! Incredible homosexual tension between the two male leads! Wait, what? Yup. If you haven't seen Lawnmower Man in a while, go back and rewatch what could possibly be the most overt sexual tension between two guys since Lord of the Rings. Check it out, and I'll be back next week for another Classic of Crap!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
CLASSICS OF CRAP: VOLUME 15-Plan 9 From Outer Space
Welcome movie nerds, and thanks for reading my 15th edition of Classics of Crap, where every week we take a look at cinema's finest failures. "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is probably the best known "so-bad-it's good" movie ever. Made in the 50's by Ed Wood, it was pretty much ignored until the early 80's, when it was famously dubbed, "The worst movie ever made", and garnered a whole new following from college stoners to ironic hipsters. I first saw this flick in college on video and I thought it was pretty awesomely terrible. There were so many bad 50's b-movies, but this one really stood out to me as being more incompetent than most. (Best part: recently zombified slab of beef Tor Johnson struggling to get out of a grave.) The 1994 film Ed Wood, which shed some light on the making of this movie, really piqued my interest in Ed Wood, and gave a little context to the making of his cinematic disasters. Should you watch it? Definitely. It makes a great double feature with Ed Wood's next best film, "Bride of the Monster". If you don't think you can watch the movie by itself, Rifftrax has a great commentary DVD on it that makes the pill a little less bitter. But really, this movie is awesome. You'd have to have a stupid Earthling mind to miss it. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
CLASSICS OF CRAP: VOLUME 14-Manos, the Hands of Fate
Well, here we are at last. One of the foulest cinematic turds of all time. Manos, the Hands of Fate is by itself, virtually unwatchable, but I, and I'm sure most people have seen it with the brilliant Mystery Science Theater commentary track playing at the bottom of the screen. Where do I begin? The movie looks like a snuff film, is one of the most technically incompetent movies ever made, and routinely makes the lists of the worst films of all time. I first saw this MST3K episode in college, and it quickly became one of my favorites. What can you say about Torgo, the half man, half drunken satyr/housekeeper? And how about Tom Neyman as "The Master" sporting the brilliant costume of a black robe with two red hands on them? Holy God, just thinking of this movie makes me want to drink bleach.
Watch a clip...if you dare...
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Warmup sketchin'
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Spurgeon, Dale | |
Cooper, William - Rodney |
Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 1/3/2013 Publication Date: 6/3/2013 Citation: Spurgeon, D.W., Cooper, W.R. 2013. Marked insects released in recapture studies may influence population estimates of native insects. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. Pp. 1156-1161. In Proc. Beltwide Cotton Conf., National Cotton Council, Memphis, TN. Interpretive Summary: Naturally-occurring insect populations are often too low, too variable, or occur at the wrong times to facilitate some field studies. In those cases, it is often possible to rear insects in the laboratory and release them in the desired numbers into the study area. During such studies, inferences about the population of native insects may be made so long as they are not influenced by the released insects. In a recent study using released insects to evaluate sampling methods for the western tarnished plant bug in cotton, we observed unequal distribution of native plant bugs among the treatments. Analyses indicated numbers of native males were higher where we released older, reproductively mature females than where we released younger females or males of either age category. Because numbers of native females were not similarly affected, we presume the released females attracted the native males. Our observations are consistent with earlier contentions of a volatile, female released sex attractant in this bug, and suggest caution should be exercised in interpreting captures of native insects collected in conjunction with studies of released insects. Technical Abstract: Recent studies of sweepnet collection efficiency for the western tarnished plant bug, Lygus hesperus Knight, in cotton have capitalized on the utility of mark-release-recapture methods. During such sampling studies, native lygus are commonly captured along with the insects that were marked and released. In some situations, it would be useful to draw inferences regarding the populations of native insects so long as their behavior is not influenced by the released insects. During a recent study of the influence of L. hesperus gender and age class on sweepnet sampling efficiency, we noted a bias in the distributions of captured native lygus adults. Exploratory analyses indicated that, in both Acala and Pima cotton, captures of native adult male lygus were significantly higher where reproductively mature females were released, compared with areas receiving pre-reproductive females, or males of either physiological age class. We presume the native males were attracted to pheromone released by the marked reproductive females, or to some other olfactory attractant associated with those females. These support earlier contentions of a volatile, female released sex attractant in L. hesperus, and suggest caution should be exercised in interpreting captures of native insects collected in conjunction with mark-release-recapture studies. |


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Supreme Court takes case of student group that bars gay members
| Washington
The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a case testing the limits of religious freedom and association when those rights clash with a college's policy of nondiscrimination against gays and lesbians.
The Christian Legal Society (CLS) at the Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco was stripped of its registered student organization status at the college because it refused to allow gay and lesbian students to become voting members or officers of the group.
Under the Hastings nondiscrimination policy, student organizations must allow fellow students to join and potentially seek leadership positions in any organization without regard to their status or beliefs.
A statement of Christian faith
Starting in the 2004-2005 academic year, the CLS required prospective members to sign a statement of Christian faith. The statement includes a pledge that the undersigned student trusts in "Jesus Christ as my savior."
Prospective members must express belief in several religious tenets, including "one God, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." The statement includes a pledge of belief in the virgin birth, eternal life, Jesus' resurrection, a divinely created heaven and earth, and that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
In addition, the national Christian Legal Society developed a policy position stating its view of biblical principles of sexual morality. The position, adopted by the Hastings chapter, said that "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle" was inconsistent with the group's statement of faith and would disqualify an individual from membership.
"A person who advocates or unrepentantly engages in sexual conduct outside marriage between a man and a woman is not considered to be living consistently with the Statement of Faith and, therefore, is not eligible" for membership in the CLS, according to the group's legal brief.
Official recognition denied
Hastings officials informed CLS that it would have to open its membership to all students despite their religion or sexual orientation. When the group refused, the law school denied CLS official recognition as a student group.
"No other student organization had ever refused to comply with Hastings' nondiscrimination policy and none has a membership policy like CLS's, which explicitly prevents Hastings students from joining on the basis of their religion, sexual orientation, or any other protected status," writes Ethan Schulman in a brief filed on behalf of Hastings.
Mr. Schulman says the college's nondiscrimination policy is designed to encourage "tolerance, cooperation, and learning among students of different backgrounds and viewpoints."
There are about 60 registered student organizations on the Hastings campus, including Hastings Outlaw (a gay rights group), Black Law Students Association, the Clara Foltz Feminist Society, Silenced Right: National Alliance Pro-Life Group, Law Students for Choice, Hastings Republicans, and Hastings Democratic Caucus.
CLS did not restrict students of different beliefs or perspectives from attending its meetings and events. The issue is over who can become a voting member and potential leader of the organization.
According to briefs in the case, CLS continued to meet on campus and conduct activities after its official status demotion. Between nine and 15 students regularly attended the meetings in 2004-05.
CLS filed suit in federal court, claiming Hastings officials violated its members' right to expressive association, free speech, free exercise of religion, and equal protection of the law.
The judge upheld the college's nondiscrimination policy as an acceptable regulation of CLS's conduct, rather than regulation of its speech. The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld the college's nondiscrimination policy. It found that the restrictions were neutral and reasonable.
Two circuit courts at odds?
In appealing to the US Supreme Court, CLS lawyer Gregory Baylor argues that the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit's decision squarely conflicts with a 2006 decision of the Chicago-based Seventh Circuit. The Seventh Circuit case also involved a college-based chapter of the Christian Legal Society challenging a nondiscrimination policy.
In contrast, the Seventh Circuit ruled for the CLS, saying imposition of the nondiscrimination policy at Southern Illinois University School of Law undercut the group's ability to advocate its viewpoint.
That court concluded that "it would be difficult for CLS to sincerely and effectively convey a message of disapproval of certain types of conduct if, at the same time, it must accept members who engage in that conduct."
In ruling for CLS, the Chicago-based appeals court applied strict scrutiny, the toughest level of judicial inspection to the school's actions. In contrast, the Ninth Circuit applied a lower level of scrutiny to the Hastings policy.
Colleges' public funding and antibias rules
In a statement after the high court announcement, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the justices should use the case to establish the principle that public funding and official recognition on public college campuses must be open to all.
"Public schools have every right – indeed, an obligation – to refuse to advance religious discrimination," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United.
"This case is about fundamental fairness," he said. "If the student religious group wins, it will mean some students will be compelled to support clubs [through payment of required student activity fees] that won't even admit them as members. That's just not right," he said.
The case is Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. It will probably be argued next spring.
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Field Configurable Ceiling Strobes
Genesis Series
Genesis ceiling strobes are small, compact, and attractive visible emergency signaling devices. Protruding no more than 1.6" (41 mm) from the ceiling, Genesis strobes blend with any decor. Thanks to patented breakthrough technology, Genesis strobes do not require bulky specular reflectors and lenses. Instead, an exclusive cavity design conditions light to produce a highly controlled distribution pattern. Significant development efforts employing this new technology have given rise to a new benchmark in strobe performance - FullLight technology. |
Link to this product
Catalog Numbers
Catalog Number
Agency Approvals- Fits all standard 4" square electrical boxes - no extension ring or trim plate needed
- #18 - #12 AWG terminals
Data Sheets
Fire Alarm Sales Tools
- 85001-0541-E--Strobe Handbook.pdf
A guide to the application and installation of fire alarm strobe devices.
- Genesis Remote Mount Signal Master Module Installation Sheet.pdf
- Genesis_Ceiling_Speaker-Strobe_Installation_Sheet.pdf
- Genesis_High_Candela_Ceiling_Strobe_Installation_Sheet.pdf
- Installation Sheet, Genesis_Ceiling_Strobe


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On Tuesday, April 8, Microsoft will bid adieu to Windows XP, delivering the final security updates for the twelve year-old OS. While many XP users out there plan on keeping their PC--with or without Microsoft's support--many others are looking to at long last switch to a new computer.
Computer technology has changed a lot since the turn of the century, however. So as we head into XP's final weekend, here are a few key things to keep in mind if you're a displaced Windows XP lover on the lookout for a new PC.
Do you want to be able to upgrade or fix parts?
Getting a slick laptop in an aluminum unibody case might look cool, but if you ever want to upgrade your RAM or hard drive, swap out a broken keyboard, or even replace the battery down the line, make sure the laptop isn't infuriating or even downright impossible to crack open. Many of today's PCs sacrifice repairability in favor of sleekness.
Lenovo is usually a good brand for tinkerers, with many laptops securing RAM, storage, and other components with one or two screws. If upgrading components is important to you, take the time to check out the laptop's underside to see what you're getting into. Business-grade laptops typically offer the easiest access; Ultrabooks frequently don't even allow you to swap out the battery.
If you're looking at a desktop, you shouldn't have a problem with getting into the case, but you'll want to check that the back has standard screw heads. All-in-one PCs are usually a bear to repair, with minimal upgrade avenues available.
Focus on touch
In my opinion, Windows 8.1 offers the best Windows desktop yet in terms of responsiveness, file management, and speedy boot times. But there's a lot more to Windows 8.1 than just the desktop thanks to the new touch-centric modern UI.
If you really want to get the most out of Windows 8.1 it's worth your time to check out the wide variety of laptops, all-in-ones, and standard PC monitors with touch. Prices on touchscreen laptops have plunged over the past year, and unlike at Windows 8's launch, affordable options are now available. Even if you think you won't need a finger-friendly display, at the very least you should try it out at the store to see if touch is something you could use.
Know the difference between Windows and Windows RT
Touch wasn't the only thing Microsoft changed when it rolled out Windows 8 more than a year and a half ago; it also added a new version of Windows for ARM processors for the first time.
Dubbed Windows RT, the ARM version looks just like regular Windows, but with one gigantic caveat: no backwards compatibility. In other words, you can't download and install classic desktop apps in Windows RT. You can only run full-screen Metro apps from the Windows Store.
If you're coming from XP, you probably don't want to get stuck with a device that operates almost exclusively in Microsoft's modern UI (though Windows RT does offer a desktop version of Internet Explorer as well as baked-in desktop Office apps).
Fortunately, Windows RT is designed for use on tablets such as the Lumia 2520 and the Surface 2, so being fooled by RT shouldn't be an issue if you're looking only at traditional PC form factors. Keep an eye out if you're considering a "hybrid" that switches between laptop and tablet form factors, however, or if you're buying a Windows tablet with plans to pick up a supplemental keyboard.
Solid state of mind
There are two kinds of onboard storage drives you can get with PCs these days: standard hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state storage (SSD).
If you're looking to get as much storage space as you can then you'll want a PC with an HDD. Hard drives haven't changed a ton in recent years. They're just faster, more reliable, and far more spacious than they were in the early days of XP.
But if you're looking to make your PC feel like greased lightning, then you'll want to look at a device with SSD. Seriously: An SSD is the most noticeable upgrade you can make with a PC, speeding up everything from boot times to application loading to file transfers speeds. If you've never used a PC outfitted with an SSD, the first time almost feels like magic--but what you gain in speed, you lose in affordability and storage capacity.
A PC with an SSD will generally be more expensive than a device with an HDD, and most affordable devices loaded with SSDs max out around 256GB of built-in storage, though larger drives are available.
Windows 7 vs. Windows 8.1
We saved the biggest for last. Depending on the shops you visit, you may be confronted with two choices for your next PC: Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
While Windows 7 will be more familiar to XP users than Windows 8.1, it can also be more expensive to get a Windows 7 PC at this point, since they're less common now and most often found in business-class machines.
But if personal comfort is more important than saving a few bucks, Windows 7 may be worth it. Keep in mind, however, that Windows 8.1 is what Microsoft is banking its future on. As of right now, it will have a longer support time than Windows 7, and some of the more familiar aspects of Windows, such as the Start menu, are headed back to Microsoft's latest version of Windows. Plus, as I said earlier, Windows 8.1 is a better desktop PC than Windows 7--as long as you banish the Start screen, that is.


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Docufy scanner app is a powerful document scanner app with over million installs. It's your business partner to digitize all your important documents.
★ Recommended by CES Mobile Apps Showdown – 'Android Mobile Scanner'
★ People's Choice Award – 'The Document scanner app'
★ SAP's Pick 'Top Android Mobile Scanner App'
★ Scan to Fax
Are you looking for a receipt, Photo or a Document scanner app?
Are you looking for a mobile scanner app?
Use "Docufy" as an ultimate scanner app to scan, enhance, fax, convert files into PDF file, convert jpeg to a pdf file, add annotations, sync and file your prescriptions, invoices, contracts, bank statements, whiteboards and much more. Gain accessibility to them from anywhere and at any time.
Make it your photo and document scanner on the go.
A better interface, greater functionality, and fewer limitations are what Docufy App offers for an unrivaled document scanning experience than any other scanner app you tried before.
Key Features:
☆ Document Scanner App
• App camera customized for scanning
• High-quality scans
• Batch scan mode for multi-page scanning
• Auto image resize
☆ Image Enhancement
• Auto-detection of scan edges
• Auto-cropping under batch scan mode
• Full control of brightness, contrast and details
• Smart "image resize" according to the screen resolution
☆ Sync to Google Drive and Dropbox
• Safe backup of all documents and receipts on Google Drive/Dropbox
• Overcome space limitations
• Use the android document scanner app to convert to PDF file format and sync documents across devices.
• PDF download to SD card
☆ Convert to PDF File
• Convert files to PDF
• Image resize option
• Export PDF to SD card "PDF download"
• Manage the settings of your PDF file and password-protect it
• Include notes and annotations as you convert to PDF file
☆ OCR Scanner
• Search through and process text within scanned documents
• Recognize amounts in your receipts and easily calculate your expenditure
• A trusted document scanner app
☆ User-friendly interface
• Clean
• Intuitive
• Grid, List and Starred View
☆ Document Management
• A multi-level filing system document scanner app
• Add annotations to your scans and convert to pdf
• Sharing scans in either images or PDFs via email, Cloud, Evernote, Skype, PDF download and many other sharing channels
• Practical receipt scanner, Document scanner, PDR Scanner and photo scanner app.
• Image resize based on the mobile screen size
☆ What's More?
• Import from gallery
• PDF download
• Limit sync to WiFi only if preferred
• Optimized for tablet users
• Send fax
What are 'App Permissions'?
• Create/ Use Accounts and System Tools: For sync accounts
• Network Access: Needed to sync your documents, photos and receipts to cloud storage
• Camera/ Hardware Control: We have a great custom camera that allows you to take pictures of multiple documents in one go.
• Manage internal storage: This is how we save your documents.
Docufy is the smart PDF scanner app that you can use a PDF scanner, photo Scanner and fax app that you can use on the go. It is the receipt scanner for those who handle many receipts. Convert files to pdf and use it as a professional PDF scanner app.
Use the fax feature to send a fax to any country with very affordable rates
It helps you scan files and convert to PDF, and keep your life paperless and easier to manage.
We would love to hear from our users. If you have any feedback, suggestion that will help us become the best PDF scanner app and the best fax app please email us at firstname.lastname@example.com


text: Using a case study and problem solving approach, this course introduces students to the institutions and complex processes of city and state government and politics, with special attention to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. By examining rules, practices and issues in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, students learn basics about how city and state governments are structured, financed and managed; how political power is sought, maintained and allocated; and how services are organized and delivered to citizens. The course surveys the governmental structures as well as the parties and other organizations involved in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania politics, and examines their constituencies, agendas and modes of operation. Students also study and discuss current major local issues and the policies that are being proposed to address them. Comparisons are made to similar and contrasting features and issues in other American cities and states.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Residents can receive notification by text or email notification in advance of adulticide aerial spraying by going to the Clarke portal. Select Register at the bottom of the form, select I am a Resident, and complete the form. Create your own password, and you will receive a confirmation email. Once you open that email you will be able to log in and choose your notification preferences.
Show All Answers
We understand that the potential for pesticide exposure concerns many. And, we know many individuals are generally sensitive to chemicals, whether they're from a perfume or a pesticide, and take steps to limit exposure whenever possible. However, mosquito control treatments, applied correctly, using EPA-registered products, will not harm humans or pets. That said, we do offer residents the ability to sign up for advance notification of scheduled applications, so they can plan accordingly.
Plants and garden beds do not need to be covered or harvested before a treatment. Just use the same practice that should be followed with grocery or market produce, and rinse with water and a mild detergent before consuming.
Leave the A/C on! Windows may also remain open. Decades ago, this was a common recommendation but as application technology and chemistries have evolved, this is no longer a necessary measure.
Insecticides are not one size-fits all, and treatments to reduce mosquito populations will not work on ticks. Why? Mosquitoes are flying; ticks are crawling. AND they are a completely different type of insect, with a different body size. Tick applications need to be made at ground-level where they crawl, and with significantly greater doses of product that required for mosquito control.
This one gets tricky and can be very product specific, but generally, the answer is, have no fear! Yes, certain active ingredients in pesticides may be toxic to beneficial insects upon direct exposure. But when it comes to mosquito control, four key things reduce this risk:
1. We don't spray just the active ingredients. We use highly-refined formulations, most of which are made with less than 5% of an active ingredient.
2. ULV treatments deliver a very, very small amount of product optimized to control mosquitoes--usually about 1 tablespoon or less to treat an acre (which is rouhly four typical suburban home lots or a football field). Why so little? Because the dose is specific to mosquitoes, which are much smaller in weight than most beneficial insects. For reference, mosquitoes weigh between 2 and 10 mg each. A firefly weighs at least 20 mg.
3. Next, that very small amount of product is delivered in super-tiny droplets--think 15 droplets on a pin head. The droplets float through the air and work by making physical contact with adult mosquitoes in-flight.
4. And lastly, we spray at night when mosquitoes are active and other beneficial insects are not.
Mosquito spraying and bees--this is another sensitive issue and one that everyone in public health mosquito control takes very seriously. Firstly, the same protective measures followed to protect other beneficial insects also apply to bees. There has also been a lot of field work and research published by very reputable academic institutions, such as Louisiana State University and Rutgers, which demonstrate that ULV treatments for mosquito control do not harm bees, even in cases of direct spray applications.
Less--and quieter--is better! ULV spray technology has evolved quite a bit since the days of DDT fogger treatments. Modern chemistries, more advanced, quieter spray equipment, and variable weather conditions mean the spray cloud is not always visible or audible--but that doesn't mean it's not working.
Every Clarke application truck is equipped with two pieces of technology that ensure spray effectiveness and safety. First is a monitoring system called SmartFlow. This equipment adjusts spray volume as vehicle speed changes to ensure a uniform treatment rate. So, whether we are driving 5 or 15 mph, the right application rate is being dispersed. The second technology used is called GeoTab , which is a GPS-based application that tracks vehicle locations, vehicle speeds, and spray activity (on/off) in real-time.
The timing of spray treatments is always closely coordinated with the communities Clarke serves, and dependent upon the makeup of their mosquito control program and budget. To determine spray requirements, we look at data from surveillance traps in the area, and combine it with insights from predictive software, resident calls, and resource availability to time adult mosquito treatments to deliver the most relief.
Last but not least, ULV spray treatments followed by rain are usually still effective, as long as there were adult mosquitoes in flight at the time of treatment. However, the lasting power of barrier treatments sprayed on plant foliage can be compromised by weather.
1. Always use a good quality repellent, especially at dawn or dusk when mosquitoes are most active.
2. Eliminate any areas where standing water can collect for more than seven days including are old tires, children's pools, buckets, and clogged gutters.
3. Change water in birdbaths frequently.
4. When mowing the lawn, do not direct grass clippings into the street. The grass will wash into the street storm sewers, providing the perfect breeding environment for mosquitoes that commonly carry the West Nile Virus.


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Latest Article|September 3, 2020|Free
::Making Grown Men Cry Since 1992
1 min read
Sandia Labs is testing explosives today; expect black smoke and loud booms any minute now.Mora County sheriff's deputy found passed out in his patrol car.In other law enforcement news, every cop in town quits after gunmen shower a Mexican police headquarters with bullets.Democrats are actually outspending Replicans this time around.You cannot cook Jamie Oliver's "30-Minute Meals" in 30 minutes.Rand Paul supporter dudes beat up a MoveOn volunteer lady. One-fifth of vertebrates may be doomed. Arctic bears are eating corpses from Russian graveyards .The world's first organic milk rap.Vaya con Dios, former Argentine president Kirchner.


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ROSEMONT, Ill. (Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy) — Drawing from a pilot study of dairy processors, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy® has released voluntary best practices for enhanced dairy traceability. The practices were designed by processors, for processors, to increase global competitiveness, help satisfy future requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and, in the rare event of a safety issue, quickly isolate products to protect public health and prevent brand damage.
The Innovation Center, established under the leadership of America's dairy producers through the dairy checkoff program, considers enhanced traceability guidelines a priority not only for improving global competitiveness, but also for supporting customer and consumer confidence. The new guidelines do not affect producers and on-farm practices.
Five processors, accounting for more than 20 percent of U.S. milk production, have committed to the practices. They are Darigold, Glanbia Foods, Hilmar Cheese Company, Leprino Foods and Michigan Milk Producers Association. In the coming months, all processors will be asked to make the U.S. Dairy Traceability Commitment stating they will voluntarily adopt and apply the practices.
"Our 80 percent goal by September 2014 is ambitious but attainable," said Dermot Carey, chairman of the Innovation Center's Traceability Subcommittee, which developed the best practices. "As an industry, we want to be the global leader for dairy traceability."
The best practices include three pillars of dairy traceability:
- Modeling physical plants to know where new lots enter and where products transform
- Creating a lot identifying mark that will be recognized and used by customers
- Enhanced record-keeping that will assist in expedient and effective recall capability
The Innovation Center's website offers several resources, including an in-depth document, "Guidance for Dairy Product Enhanced Traceability," which offers voluntary practices and protocols for strengthening the U.S. dairy supply chain. It features a handy, one-page, 21-point traceability checklist.
"We designed these best practices to be workable for processors large and small," said Edith Wilkin, a subcommittee member and the vice president of food safety and regulatory compliance at Leprino Foods. "You do not need enterprise resource planning software or other technologies. You can implement with paper and pencil in just a few minutes a day."
The pilot study, encompassing processors of various sizes and sectors, confirmed that traceability is nothing new for U.S. dairy. Processors have long had effective programs in place.
"What we have done is establish national, industry-wide best practices that will only enhance current traceability programs," said Carey, senior vice president of the ingredients division at Darigold. "Because traceability is part of the increasing price of admission to compete both domestically and globally, these practices are in the best interests of processors and the entire dairy industry."
"One processor reported that enhanced traceability improved record-keeping, provided better lot and material usage control, yielded a keener understanding of what goes into every product, created better labeling consistency and led to a more efficient flow of work between business groups, increasing the speed from materials to finished product. Traceability increased ROI."
The traceability guidelines were written with Washington in mind. When Congress passed the most sweeping reform of food safety laws in more than 70 years (FSMA), it tasked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to create regulations. The FDA, in turn, has asked food industries for input.
"With Congress and the FDA putting so much attention on food safety in general and traceability in particular, it's just smart business to get in front of this issue now," said Carey.


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At last month's Twitchcon, the game-streaming site Twitch's annual conference, the company unveiled a suite of new tools for video creators on its platform designed to help them grow their online channels and make more money. Two of those tools — Achievements and Stream Summary — are today going live, the company announced this afternoon.
These two tools are specifically focused on helping creators better understand what sort of content is resonating with their audience, how it performs and track their path to becoming a Twitch Affiliate or Partner.
The Twitch Partner program has existed for some time, allowing popular video creators to monetize their channels with monthly subscriptions and ad revenue share. This past spring, the company introduced a second tier called Affiliates.
Currently, Twitch Affiliates can earn money through things like Cheering with Bits (a sort of virtual tipping mechanism), subscriptions and game sales, similar to Partners. However, they don't have the same level of access — for example, Affiliates can't offer custom Cheermotes and only get one Sub Emote (a custom subscriber emoticon), compared to the 50 Sub Emotes available to Partners.
For those Twitch creators who want to work their way into these higher tiers, knowing where you stand now and what's required to move up is key.
That's where the new Achievements feature comes in.
Starting today, streamers will see a new page on their Dashboard called "Achievements" that displays progress bars under each milestone that has to be hit before applying to either the Affiliate or Partner Program.
For example, they'll see how far along they are on specific tasks — like "stream for 4 hours in the last 30 days" or "stream for 25 unique days in the last 30 days." Their progress is shown as a percentage complete in addition to the progress bar.
Meanwhile, Stream Summary let creators view detailed analytics about their stream that may help them achieve various goals — like engaging fans and getting them chatting, for instance.
The summary page includes a list of various viewership stats from past streams, like number of viewers, new followers and chatters. Creators will also be able to see the top Clips from their streams, source of views and other stats that will count toward becoming an Affiliate or Partner.
Tools like these are important not only to the creators themselves, but also to the company's bottom line. Twitch splits the revenue generated through Partners and Affiliates channels, so the more people it can push into these money-making tiers, the better.
Those programs have been growing steadily, the company also said in October.
The Twitch Affiliate Program has grown to include more than 110,000 video creators, and more than double the amount of money was paid to individual Partners in 2017, with 71 percent more money generated on average.
In total, the site reaches 15 million active daily users, and is used by over 2.2 million creators monthly. That leaves plenty of room for these programs to further expand their ranks.
Correction: The feature name is Stream Summary, not Summaries, even when plural. The story has been updated to reflect this.


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Many years ago, medical science was unable to provide a diagnosis or determine an actual cause for a variety of strange maladies that seemed to be a result of consuming certain foods. Today, while there is still no cure for food allergies, much has been learned about their causes, and significant progress has been made in providing effective, and in some cases, life saving treatments.
A severe or extreme degree of some of the symptoms, such as swelling of the tongue and throat and changes in blood pressure, can lead to an inability to breathe properly, resulting in unconsciousness and even death. This extreme level of symptoms is known as anaphylaxis. Prompt medical attention in these cases is vital in order to save the person's life. Some people may be required to carry on their person at all times, an emergency injection of medication, which is designed to ease the severe, life-threatening symptoms in the event that the allergy-causing protein is unknowingly consumed.
There are eight specific foods or types of foods that are responsible for 90 percent of all food allergies in humans: fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, cow's milk, eggs, wheat, and soy. While some of these foods are more often responsible for allergic reactions in adults than children, people of all ages may have allergic reactions to the same foods. Fish, shellfish, and tree nuts are responsible for more food allergies in adults than in children, while cow's milk, eggs, wheat, and soy most often affect children. Peanuts affect all ages about equally. Although food allergies affect people of all ages, four to six times as many children have food allergies as adults.
Eight Foods that are Responsible for 90% of all Food Allergies in Humans


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St. Petersburg, FL – Luke Scott's go-ahead leadoff homer in the sixth inning lifted the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays to a 5-4 win over the Seattle Mariners in the third test of a four-game set.
James Shields (5-0) fanned 11 and became the first MLB pitcher to reach five wins despite allowing four runs on five hits and four walks in six innings.
Sean Rodriguez smacked a two-run homer for the Rays, who have won 10 of their last 11 games.
Kyle Seager belted two homers and drove in four for Seattle, which has dropped five straight.
Blake Beavan (1-3) gave up five runs on seven hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings.
The game was tied 4-4 in the sixth inning but Scott, aided by a bit of luck, put the Rays ahead with a solo shot.
Scott blasted one to deep center field and Michael Saunders made a valiant attempt in trying to make the catch. As Saunders leapt at the warning track, the ball glanced off of his glove and cleared the wall, giving the home team a 5-4 advantage.
"I got a bit of the ball," Saunders said of the play. "I don't know if I was going to catch it before I hit the wall, I don't know if the ball was already over the wall. I don't know."
Seattle put runners on the corners with one out in the eighth, but Joel Peralta came on to put out the fire. Alex Liddi popped out to catcher Jose Molina in foul territory and Justin Smoak flied out to right field to end the frame.
Peralta then retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his first save of the season.
"The bullpen, what can I say, they where phenomenal tonight," Shields said.
The Mariners touched Shields for three two-out runs in the first inning. Ichiro Suzuki worked a walk, Jesus Montero singled and Seager golfed a three- run shot into the seats in right-center field.
Tampa Bay, though, took the lead after plating two runs apiece in the third and fourth innings.
In the third. Rodriguez laced a two-run homer into left-center field to cut the deficit to 3-2 and Molina shot one into the right-center field gap for a two-run double in the fourth, giving Tampa Bay a 4-3 lead.
Seager belted a solo shot to tie the contest in the sixth.
Game Notes
Shields won his fifth straight start for the first time in his career...The Mariners have lost six straight games at Tropicana Field...Seattle has totaled just nine runs during its five-game losing streak.


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Fingerprint Rolling Certification
California law requires any individual who rolls fingerprints manually or electronically for licensure, certification and/or employment purposes to be certified by the state Department of Justice (Penal Code section 11102.1). A certified fingerprint roller must begin using his/her certification number as soon as it is received.
Penal Code section 11102.1(a)(2) exempts the mandatory certification requirement for law enforcement personnel, state employees and employees of tribal gaming agencies.
Here is basic information for individuals interesting in becoming a Certified Fingerprint Roller in California.
Step One (1) – Review the Handbook
This handbook provides you with basic steps, and responsibilities for obtaining a Certification including background check information and disqualifying offenses.
Fingerprint Rolling Certification Program Reference Handbook, pdf.
Step Two (2) – Complete the Application for Certification
Complete the Application for Certification (Form BCIA 8372 3/11).
Application for Certification – Form BCIA 8372 – 3/11, pdf
PLEASE NOTE: You will need to provide your Social Security Number for identification and verification purposes. By law, applicants must furnish this standard data element or the Application for Certification will not be processed. Your Social Security Number will not be made available for public inspection.
Social Security Privacy Information, pdf
Step Three (3) – Get fingerprinted
Once you have completed the Application for Certification, you will need to be fingerprinted.
To find the Live Scan site nearest you, their hours of operation, and fees for fingerprinting services, please click on this link for a list of Public Live Scan Sites. If you have any questions, contact the Fingerprint Rolling Certification Program at (916) 227-6420 or email to email@example.com.
Once you have decided on a Live Scan site, please complete and provide the following Request for Live Scan Service (BCII 8016) form to the Live Scan site for electronic processing of your fingerprints.
Request for Live Scan Service – Form BCIA 8016FP, pdf.
Please note: You must present valid photo identification when being fingerprinted. Expired identification information will not be accepted.
A fingerprint-rolling fee may be collected when you get your fingerprints taken. Since this fee varies widely among locations, you will want to review the cost before going to a fingerprinting site. Be sure to check for any restrictions on method of payment, such as cash or money order only.
There also is a criminal history processing fee collected by the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the background checks and an additional $25 fee for the Certification. Total $76.00. While often paid by the agency you will be employed with, some applicants may be required to pay this fee themselves, so check with your requesting agency.
PLEASE NOTE: The DOJ does not accept manual hard card fingerprint impressions for Fingerprint Roller Certification submissions.
Step Four (4) – Mail completed Application Packet to the DOJ
Due to the recent enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 174, Chapter 25, Statutes of 2009; Penal Code Section 11102.1 was amended to remove the notarization requirement for a person applying to become a certified fingerprint roller.
Effective January 1, 2010 the Application for Certification of Non-Exempted Individuals to Take Fingerprint Impressions (BCIA 8372) no longer requires the application to be notarized. If you have any questions, please contact the Fingerprint Rolling Certification Program at (916) 227-6420.
Once you have been fingerprinted, mail the Application for Certification to:
Department of Justice
Fingerprint Rolling Certification Program
P.O. Box 903387
Sacramento, CA 94203-3870


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[Eliji Hayashi's] project for a class at Carnegie Mellon University is absolutely delightful! It is a game he calls Laser Command because a laser pointer is used as the gaming controller. An 8×8 LED matrix serves as the display, but is also used as an 8×8 light sensor, much the same way as the LED advent project did. The display is rapidly switched between producing light and sensing it. The laser is bright enough that it becomes easy to pick up the voltage generated within the matrix during the sensing periods. The game is programmed on an Arduino mini and the whole thing wraps up into an incredibly small package. Brilliant.
[Thanks Juan]


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Design participation for NEW-PAPERS art publication Madrid, Spain.
NO MODA . Creative Design Studio
Graphic Design / Illustration / Art Direction
Los Angeles,Ca 90021 ©2011 No Moda
No Moda is an art studio based in Los Angeles, CA specializing in design, illustration, and art direction.It is the collaborative effort of designers 100tifico & Sesos. The projects focus on extending the idea of design into new avenues of art. Collaborations & Selective works include; Musicians, Book-Makers, Record Labels, Fashionable Goods, Gallery work, & fun projects with Friends and Neighbors. No Moda also curates products for its self-run online shop Robotepec.
Work : New-Papers, Torino Mixtape, NM_Zine#2, Machin, Dublab, WCV, WCV_Site, KAW, Cosmicnut, NM_Collection#1, NM_Projection, NM_Zine#1, Coachella, Flog Blog, Torino 1, Torino 2, Brillo Monthly, Nuevos Ricos, Bi-Polar, Tshirt Expo, Red Bull, Actual Pain, Luchapalooza, Eye Candy, Magikal Odyssey, Blog, Shop, 100tifico, Sesos
Design participation for NEW-PAPERS art publication Madrid, Spain.


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The Climb (from Chambery): 19.5 kms (12.1 miles) Ascent: 950 metres (3,115 feet)
Chambery is one of those French Alps towns that is made for cyclists. Down low, there is a very well developed network of cycling paths – and on all sides are fantastic climbs into the mountains.
Pré means meadow in French – so Col des Prés clumsily translated means "mountain pass of the meadows" (which makes sense as at the top it opens up into alpine meadows).
I started outside Chambery to minimize the first few busyish kilometres. After St Jean d'Arvey, it's becomes a very nice wide-open, quiet road, that winds up the side of the mountain.
I hadn't expected to get lost, but I came to an intersection with no signs and took the "up" road, not remembering there was a descent in the middle of the climb. Fortunately, this led to a superb little detour through the woods and a couple of tiny villages. No harm no foul.
While a fair bit of snow near the top, the roads were perfectly cleared. On the descent I considered detouring to Col de Plainpalais – but my legs told me to call it a day.
Note: There is also a Col du Pré, a fantastic climb above Beaufort.